Hey everyone. I'm back in Milwaukee now. Got back from Vegas yesterday afternoon (Saturday) and must say that overall, it was a really good experience. The training itself was nice cause it was about a couple new products that we are launching that I'll probably be directly selling so it's always nice to have exposure to new things early on in the process. As for the playtime after training - that was so good too. Vegas is truly the city of sin and truly the city that never sleeps. It's crazy but there are always people everywhere and people doing things (most notably, gambling).

My overall winnings (I mean losings) for the weekend was about $100 USD on Craps, Blackjack and a couple of games on the Slots (usually, just to kill time while waiting for someone). That was crappy to lose that money but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that bad cause I was up about $150 USD before going to Vegas after kicking butt in all the NCAA pools that I was in. I had the Kansas-Syracuse final and as a result, won $95 in one pool and $54 in another. So, in the end of it all, I was actually up about $50 so that is cool with me.

In my last blog, which I just re-read and saw how eloquent it was, I mentioned that I had just got back from Rain. Damn, I must say - that is a really cool club. The atmosphere inside was wild and the coolest part was the fire that they had coming down from the ceiling. It was so warm (which fire usually is) but what a cool idea...totally cool. On Friday night (after the Leafs Game 2 debacle vs. the Flyers), I went out to dinner (a buffet at the Luxor hotel) with two of my co-workers. It was fun and after, we played some blackjack. After that, I went to Paris hotel to meet up with my buddy Vipin and all of his Toronto/LA friends. They were all in town for a bachelor party this weekend so it worked out well - I got to hang with them on Thursday and Friday night so that was good times. We drank and chilled at Paris (their hotel) and finally left for Studio 54 where we had another AMAZING time. Studio 54 was off the hook! There were these acrobats hanging from the ceiling doing crazy tricks during songs. The go-go dancers were so wicked (especially this one girl in a cowboy hat - WOW!!!) There was easily 500 - 750 people there and it was so awesome. The layout of the club is really cool too and gives you a good mix of dance floor and chill space. We were at Studio 54 until about 4:30 and after we left that club, it took us a while but we finally got to Drais, an afterhours place. We had some hookup at Drais so managed to get a reserved table and bottles of alcohol like CC, Vodka, etc. It was pimpin', straight out of a rap video. I left Drais at about 6:30 cause I was tired. Got back to my room at New York New York and had about 25 minutes to sleep until I had to get up and pack in order to make it to the airport in time to catch my 9:14 flight back home to Milwaukee. So, as you can see - I pulled an all nighter on Friday partying and damn, I was tired after that. The plane home through Minneapolis went by quick cause all I did was sleep but it wasn't good sleep cause I was sitting up on the plane.

Last night when I got back, I went to Raymond's to chill out for a bit and then he and I picked up Joanne and we were going to go to Chicago to meet Dave and Veronica for Korean BBQ. On the drive there, I got pulled over by the Popo! It was my first time ever getting pulled over by the cops. It appears that he clocked me going at 69 mph in a 55 mph zone. I played the innocent game, pointed at my speedometre with kph instead of mph and kind of said some crap about thinking I had the conversion correct. In the end, after taking my licence and I guess running a check on me - he saw that I was clean as a whistle and didn't give me a ticket or anything. He just said that this was a warming and I should be careful.

Question for y'all - will the "warning" stay on my recond now?

I did know that I drive fast and I must say that it's a good thing that I got this warning. Now, I'm sure that I'll be more cautious cause I don't want to get into more potential trouble with the popo. After Korean BBQ, I went to a Jazz club in Chicago with Raymond and Joanne. It was great to hear some live music and the ambiance of the place was nice. It was called the Green Mill. One silly thing happened while we were there. We ordered a bottle of wine and I was about to give the waitress my VISA card when she said "We don't take VISA - we only take American Express". I was shocked. Who only takes AMEX? I thought out of all the cards - AMEX is always the one that people don't take. Not the other way around! Damn fools, cause of you - I had to go and use a bank machine and pay yet another crappy service charge (I've been paying too many of those lately).

Last thing cause this is a LONG blog. Congrats go out to Mike Weir today - the first Canadian to ever win a major PGA Tour event. And to do it at the Masters no less is amazing. I was so nervous watching his for his last 5 holes and the playoff. He had nerves of steel - that was so exciting to watch. I heard this story on TV that I'll share. In 1999, Weir was competing for the PGA Championship with Tiger on the final day of the tournament. He started the day tied with Tiger and potentially poised for victory. However, he shot a bad round and ended up losing to Tiger and a bunch of other people. A couple of days later, he got a call from none other than the Great One, Wayne Gretzky who basically said "Don't worry about it. Keep working hard. Keep practicing. Keep improving. Your time will come and you'll be ready for it". Mike always wanted to be a hockey player and idolized Gretzky but he was too small to succeed at the sport. I guess he then decided to take up Golf but at least he doesn't have a swing like Happy Gilmore. Weir's stroke is simple and elegant - it is a work of art. I imagine that getting a phone call like that from Wayne Gretzky has got to be a pretty wicked thing and very motivating. Now after all that - look at him now. On top of the golfing world. Congrats MIKE!!!